In today’s briefing:
- Digging into the Year-End Divvy Arbitrage Game in Korea’s Market
- Ecopro BM: Transfer of Listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI Is Likely in 1Q 2025
- Main Fact Checks on the Mix-Up Around Kum Yang’s Rights Offering Rollout
- Hyundai Motor: Share Buyback of 1 Trillion Won and Trump’s Tariffs
Digging into the Year-End Divvy Arbitrage Game in Korea’s Market
- For March KOSPI 200 futures, expect a 0.95% to 1% yield for spot-futures arbitrage, with contango depending on year-end ex-div trends and passive inflows.
- Passive inflows into the value-up index in January and spillover effects into K200 futures, potentially fueling year-end contango due to overlap with KOSPI 200.
- Prop trader dynamics are cooling off: Tax-driven buying in December, selling in January likely to ease, reducing the past backwardation. Without it, expect higher volatility in K200 futures.
Ecopro BM: Transfer of Listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI Is Likely in 1Q 2025
- On 27 November, Ecopro BM (247540 KS) announced that it has filed an application for the transfer of listing from KOSDAQ to KOSPI.
- Ecopro BM is currently the second largest company in KOSDAQ. At the current market cap, Ecopro BM will be the 34th largest company in KOSPI (in terms of market cap).
- Lofty valuation is one of the main reasons why we continue to be bearish on Ecopro BM which is trading at P/E of 134x and P/B of 9.4x in 2026.
Main Fact Checks on the Mix-Up Around Kum Yang’s Rights Offering Rollout
- The FSS’s correction deadline still starts from October 17, giving Kum Yang until January 16 next year to get everything in order.
- We should still be all over this, as the major shareholder likely won’t participate, flooding the market with stock rights and unsubscribed shares, creating a prime 25% discount opportunity.
- Kum Yang needs even this 200-300 billion KRW, so cancellation seems unlikely. With the FSS deadline on January 16, they’ll likely submit the revised report mid to late next month.
Hyundai Motor: Share Buyback of 1 Trillion Won and Trump’s Tariffs
- On 27 November, Hyundai Motor (005380 KS) announced that it plans to buy back 1 trillion won worth of its shares (700 billion won to be cancelled).
- Trump’s aggressive tariff policy has been one of the major factors negatively impacting Hyundai Motor’s share price in the past several months.
- Hyundai Motor’s valuation has become more attractive. There are also other investments such as its stakes in Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Motor India that could be valued higher.
💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
Sign Up for Free
The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network
- ✓ Unlimited Research Summaries
- ✓ Personalised Alerts
- ✓ Custom Watchlists
- ✓ Company Data and News
- ✓ Events & Webinars
